Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 5:48 pm Post subject: Teachers that have moved back to America

I am thinking of giving up the international life and moving back to the states with my family. I miss my parents and they are getting older. I also want to fix up my house before I sell it. But, I am worried that I will miss my students, traveling, and the people I work with.

Do you having an regrets moving back to America? How has it been? I am asking about America specifically because I will be moving there.

Last edited by No_hite_pls on Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:39 am; edited 4 times in total

Amen! My parents guilt-tripped me into coming back... the first day I was ready to go back to Korea, and after a couple of months I was submitting paperwork for my new visa~

What made you want to come back to Korea so quickly?

I believe she has a serious case of kimchi fev....

AHEM. <cough, cough>

I mean, I believe she has a Korean significant other. It's one of only 2 reasons for the rubber-band effect after finally escaping, I mean, leaving Korea.

1) You can't find a decent job with pay and benefits at an adequate level [to be fair, people get spoiled here, and then don't adjust their expectations. So if they can't save $1K a month and get three paid vacations to Asia in a year, it's 'American jobs SUCK! Back to the kinder hagwon for me!'].

2) There is some kind of thing involving, uh, the nether regions, shall we say. Prerhaps they are ugly but in Korea they can catch some hotness and they can't deal with the jarring nature of being unable to date attractive people who can fully communicate with them. Or, they have unfortunately 'fallen' for a Korean national, and since Korean nationals can never be truly happy living outside of Korea, it's either come here for life or hit the road, Jack. Those choosing the former option will find remarkable, tortorous methods of rationalizing and justifying their choice ['I LIKE kimchi! It's so delicious! And you can't get GOOD kimchi anywhere except Korea' and so forth].

So, money or sex. The only two reasons to come back here. Avoid LTRs with Koreans, get your money, and have a proper job waiting back home and you won't miss a thing.

Ah yes~ sex and money~~ both powerful things that people like and that some people put too much emphasis on...

HOWEVER~ I just like Korea~ I studied it, went to a summer program here before making the move, and really enjoy the lifestyle~~ My fiance is pretty sexy, but when I moved back to America, he decided to join me there~~ He likes America because it is so wide and such, and my family likes him, so he had fun when we vacationed there together~ I, on the other hand, do not like it.

I find the political climate to be increasingly inane (Just yesterday, one of my friends posted a picture about how Obama loves eating dogs... Is that an important factor to consider? What about the past four years of him being a lame duck president? Why not emphasize that? blah blah blah). I don't like all the crime and having to be paranoid about getting mugged or worse. I don't like being tied down, which I would be if I went back to America... this is where money comes into play. For me to be able to move out on my own, I'd have to get a good job, which isn't going to happen (where I live, at least). I don't want to be some rich snob, but I'm not going to move back in with my parents... I would literally go insane. I've also never been really patriotic, and I've wanted to go abroad for a long time~ I never really saw myself being too happy settling down in the States, even before I had moved here.

As for kimchi~ I do love it. I know lots of people who like it, but as with other things, there are always haters ^.^ De gustibus non est disputandem~

As for "nether regions," there will always be people who don't understand love and who just assume that you're an ugly cow who can't get any from your own race (you know, racists), and can't see Koreans as people (again, racists) so they don't understand why you, a proud 'merican, would lower yourself in that way...

As many people here have asked Modernist, "why are you here?" He says there are only two reasons, sex and money, and since he's not going to degrade himself by being in an interracial relationship, it must be for the big bucks he makes at the "kinder hagwon" he works at~~ ^.^

you guys must have been social outcasts who were only home a day and wanting to come back to Korea. That's pathetic.
When I went home after 2 years away it felt like the first week came to Korea--totally on cloud 9. Only this time I can understand everything and saw my buddies and ate great cheap food.

Each to their own. Modernist; you are judging a book by its very simplistic cover, not even reading the blurb in fact. Stay in America if you're going to be so closed-minded; I honestly pity you if your world view revolves around just money and sex so much that you project that onto others without knowing the facts. Not the first ignorant thing you've posted though so can't say it's a big surprise.
Dodge 7; Going back home can illuminate what's good and bad about both the societies/cultures in question. I had a week vacation back in the UK and looked forward to returning here, but it was nice to be back home too. Best to have a balanced attitude, be critical of each culture without defecating all over it and yourself. It'd be easy for someone to come out and criticize your statement as the words of someone who doesn't understand the culture differences and clearly doesn't appreciate Korea, but that would be presumptious too, no? Just like saying someone's a pathetic loser because they were keen to get back here.

Each to their own. Modernist; you are judging a book by its very simplistic cover, not even reading the blurb in fact. Stay in America if you're going to be so closed-minded; I honestly pity you if your world view revolves around just money and sex so much that you project that onto others without knowing the facts. Not the first ignorant thing you've posted though so can't say it's a big surprise.
Dodge 7; Going back home can illuminate what's good and bad about both the societies/cultures in question. I had a week vacation back in the UK and looked forward to returning here, but it was nice to be back home too. Best to have a balanced attitude, be critical of each culture without defecating all over it and yourself. It'd be easy for someone to come out and criticize your statement as the words of someone who doesn't understand the culture differences and clearly doesn't appreciate Korea, but that would be presumptious too, no? Just like saying someone's a pathetic loser because they were keen to get back here.

Let's put it this way, I first came here in 1993 and every time I came back to America I wanted to go back to Korea.

There are so many factors.

Primarily these are the ones:

Traveling is addictive

my cohorts have boring mundane lives that they've lived for the past 20 years.

I can't stand the food here.

I hate listening to other people's conversations in English. Not being able to fully understand the language was beautiful.

I've been jaded by living overseas and visiting very poor countries. My field is in counseling and to be honest I'm not very empathetic to many of the problems that my clients present to me which IS NOT a good thing in my field.

I felt way more community in Korea than I do here.

I can't stand American tv/movies etc... anymore. the only thing I miss when I'm away is American football.

I hate listening to politicians and the same rhetoric over and over again.

When I was in Korea, I never thought about America, but when I'm in America I'm constantly thinking about Korea or the many other countries I've visited.

I honestly feel so sorry for all of the people I interact with who have never traveled much. Traveling for me is a passion and a lifestyle.

Americans are for the most part quite myopic. In a way we are brainwashed at a young age to think that the rest of the world is crap.

I love going to the ER at any time of day or night and pay 5,000W to see a doctor.

Let's put it this way, I first came here in 1993 and every time I came back to America I wanted to go back to Korea.

There are so many factors.

Primarily these are the ones:

Traveling is addictive

my cohorts have boring mundane lives that they've lived for the past 20 years.

I can't stand the food here.

I hate listening to other people's conversations in English. Not being able to fully understand the language was beautiful.

I've been jaded by living overseas and visiting very poor countries. My field is in counseling and to be honest I'm not very empathetic to many of the problems that my clients present to me which IS NOT a good thing in my field.

I felt way more community in Korea than I do here.

I can't stand American tv/movies etc... anymore. the only thing I miss when I'm away is American football.

I hate listening to politicians and the same rhetoric over and over again.

When I was in Korea, I never thought about America, but when I'm in America I'm constantly thinking about Korea or the many other countries I've visited.

I honestly feel so sorry for all of the people I interact with who have never traveled much. Traveling for me is a passion and a lifestyle.

Americans are for the most part quite myopic. In a way we are brainwashed at a young age to think that the rest of the world is crap.

I love going to the ER at any time of day or night and pay 5,000W to see a doctor.

that's it for now.

Im in the same boat as you and agree with most of your points except about the food. US cities have a variety of food that is not seen in many other countries.